


Out of the Shadows

by thingyoudowiththatthing



Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Deaf Clint Barton, F/M, Incest, Trust Issues, Underage Rape, and absolutely not graphic, both just mentions and not glorified, domestic abuse, gun shot wound, life of crime, life on the run
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-07-24 21:09:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20021074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thingyoudowiththatthing/pseuds/thingyoudowiththatthing
Summary: The Black Hood is a known con artist and thief. She keeps nothing for herself and only hits people that have come by their money in less than legal ways. No one, despite the times and numbers of agencies and kin pins that are out to get her, knows what she looks like. No one has come even close to catching her, except one.





	1. Roles to Play

Officially Clint Barton had been hunting the Black Hood for years. She had managed to piss off a few politicians years ago by regifting some money they had earned from various drug lords to an orphanage outside the city. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been on SHIELD’s radar before then, but that was when they decided to actively try and bring her in. They did so by putting one of their best agents on her; Clint Barton. 

The thing was Clint was only really one of their best agents when he chose to be. He did his job to an extent. He trailed her for months before he made contact just after she had cleaned one of the city’s most notorious kingpins out of millions of dollars. Clint didn’t stop her. He knew the money would go where it was most needed. That was the thing about the Black Hood. She never kept any of the money she stole for herself. She regifted them to people that needed them the most, like a modern-day Robin Hood, stealing from the criminals and corrupt and giving to the poor and needy. 

Which was also one of the reasons Clint had no intention of bringing her in the first place. People were rarely hurt during her thefts and when they were, they were criminals that most likely deserved worse than the state Black Hood left them in. 

Truthfully Clint probably would have stayed hidden in the shadows forever if it hadn’t been for the bounties that different crime families placed on her head. Even if what she stole wasn’t enough to put them out of business she was a nuisance and an embarrassment to them. They wanted her gone. They wanted an example made of her so no one ever attempted the bold moves the young women, nobody knew who was or even looked like, had done over the years. 

Almost nobody knew what she looked like. There was one exception to that rule, but he would also never give away her identity to anyone unless she made the choice to let him bring her in. 

_High-speed car chases and parkouring across buildings to escape crime families wasn’t a new sport to her, but it was still tiring and the Black Hood was out of breath when she made it to her motel room out of town and where she felt safe enough to pull the mask of her face._

_She winced and placed a hand against her side, leaning forward to brace herself against one of the tables. It hurt to breathe and not only because her lungs threatened to jump from her chest after the miles long sprint over buildings across the city she had just made. One of the thugs had managed to catch her side with one of his bullets even if none of them could aim for shit, one person could only dodge so many projectiles flying at you at once._

_“Are you hurt?” Black Hood jumped when the voice sounded from the vents. She ignored the shooting pain from her right side as she aimed her gun towards the ceiling just as the vent fell to the floor and a man poked his head into the room._

_“What the fuck are you doing in my ceiling?” she hissed equally annoying with the intruder as she was with the pain, that was threatening to drop her any minute now if she didn’t slow down a bit._

_“Technically not your ceiling. It’s Mrs. Adams,” the man shrugged staying seated in the vent, smirking down at the angry, confused woman below him._

_“What? Who?” the young thief hissed as she glared at the man above her. “Who the fuck are you?”_

_“Mrs. Adams. The sweet old lady that owns the motel,” the man answered still smirking. “I’m Clint. I would shake your hand and everything, but I fear you’d might shoot it off if I tried.”_

_“Clint… Are you one of Osbourne’s men or do you work for Fisk?” she hissed, before flinching again and hunching over a little._

_Clint frowned when he saw the pain in her face and movements and instantly let himself drop to the floor, raining his hands above his head._

_“Not a criminal. And I’m not here to arrest or hurt you. You’re bleeding on the carpet,” Clint nodded towards her right foot and her eyes briefly followed the direction he looked._

_“No shit Sherlock,” she hissed, but still she lowered herself into one of the chairs next to her with a groan. She kept the gun pointed at Clint’s chest as she snarked at him. “What are you a spy or something?”_

_“Actually….” Clint shrugged running his hand behind his neck, giving her a small smile as her eyes widened._

_“You’re….” the woman narrowed her eyes, looking towards the vent before her eyes found Clint again. “Shield. You’re the bird guy.”_

_“Bird guy,” Clint grumbled as he took a step closer, “keep pointing that gun at me and I’ll start to reconsider patching you up.”_

_The woman lowered the gun slightly, letting Clint slowly approach her and kneel down in front of her chair._

_“You said you weren’t going to arrest me,” she accused but let Clint help her lower the gun before he took it from her and laid it down on the table next to them._

_“I’m not. Can I?” Clint let his hand hover above her shirt waiting for her to nod before he raised it up. She hissed leaning back in the chair, letting Clint have a better look and he knew she had to be in worlds of pain if she let him get this close to her._

_“We need to get that bullet out,” Clint frowned when he saw her wound. “Get on the bed. Do you have a first aid kit somewhere?” he asked, before quickly reaching out to catch her when she almost fell over trying to take a step._

_“In the bathroom. In the purple bag,” she nodded towards the door in the back of the room, reluctantly leaning on Clint as he helped her get to the bed._

_“Lay down. I’ll go get it. Don’t run,” Clint pointed to her and ordered, causing the woman to pull a face at him._

_“Does it look like I’m in any condition to run anywhere birdbrain?” she hissed, ignoring Clint’s grumbling from the bathroom._

_“It’s Hawkeye, not bird guy,” he corrected, “I prefer Clint though.” His tone softened a bit as he lowered himself down on the bed next to her, holding a pair of tweezers into the fire from a lighter he had pulled from his pocket. One never knew when a fiery arrow was called for._

_“This is gonna hurt Miss…” Clint looked into the woman’s eyes and for a brief moment, he was sure he saw a flicker of doubt in them before she shook her head._

_“Not giving you my name,” she insisted and Clint smiled as he pulled up her shirt once more._

_“I’m about to dig a bullet out of your spleen. I’ve got to call you something other than Black Hood,” he teased, causing the woman to pull a face at him once more but this time she was hiding a smile behind her stubborn facade._

_“You can call me Aurora,” she offered and Clint frowned before a grin broke on his face._

_“Like Aurora Florentina Magnosson?” he asked, and Aurora sent him an impressed smile._

_“Exactly like that. Now get that damn bullet out of me would you Clint?” she ordered, but with a playful glimmer in her eyes despite her pain._

_“Okay. Bossy,” Clint mumbled before reaching behind his back for one of his arrows, offering it to Aurora. “Bite down on this.”_

The Black Hood was a loner. She trusted no one and had always told herself she needed nobody either, but that weekend she had needed Clint. She could barely move, shivering through a nasty fever and only eating and drinking whatever he brought her.

As soon as Black Hood or Aurora as she was to Clint now had started to get better, he had brought up the option of returning to SHIELD with him. She wouldn’t have been the first person he was sent to kill or arrest he had brought back and talked Fury into hiring instead. Aurora had skills and potential as an agent if only she could learn to trust people again. 

She had rejected his offer and Clint had decided not to push her. She was strong, fierce and righteous, but Clint saw something else in her too. Someone that had been hurt and let down by everyone around her. Someone that still saw the good in people that deserved her help. He saw a scared and angry young woman that was struggling to find her place in the world while keeping everyone at arms distance. He saw someone that he had been himself once or close to it. He knew that pushing her would only drive her away so instead he had promised she would see him again and his offer wouldn’t go away. 

Clint had kept that promise, tracking her down every year on the anniversary they met. Not that he ever really lost tabs on her. Aurora might not trust him completely yet, but Clint needed to make sure she stayed safe. It went beyond attraction and professional admiration. She was beautiful, funny and mysterious. Clint would be lying if he said he wasn’t falling for her. She was also highly skilled and someone Clint saw would be an asset to the Avengers if she was willing. More than that she was a kindred spirit and someone he had grown to care about. 

Every year Clint spent the weekend with her. Weekends that became increasingly intimate and it became harder and harder for him to say goodbye. He wanted to drag her back to SHIELD and then when they dissolved, the Avengers, but he knew he couldn’t. Turning her life around had to be her choice, just like he wanted to be her choice and not just a knight in shining armor, dead set on giving her a better life. In the end, it wasn’t who Clint was and he wasn’t so sure the life he could offer her was all that much better or even safer. Just less lonely. Either way, the choice was Aurora’s to make. 


	2. In her Shadow

The Black Hood, or Aurora as she had named herself to Clint, had learned from a young age to trust no one. Everyone close to her had hurt her or let her down in some way or another. You can’t get hurt if you don’t ever let anyone close to you. 

Clint had challenged Aurora in her ways of thinking over the years. Sometimes directly, telling her that everyone needed somebody sometimes. He told her of his best friend and how she once hadn’t been all that different from Aurora. He told her how she hadn’t trusted anyone but herself and even still to this day kept her walls up to most people. She had seen the value in friendships though. She believed in loyalty and love even if she might not be willing to let most people know that just yet. 

Aurora smiled when Clint spoke of Natasha. Not just because she agreed they were anything alike, but because Clint always spoke of her with such warmth. The smile on his face was contagious and he had a way of making her a part of his life through his words. Soon she didn’t only feel as if she knew Natasha, but also the rest of the team Clint became part of. Bruce was as broken as she felt at times. Tony struggled with demons just like her. Thor had pride and belief in his own skills that she saw in herself as well and Steve Rogers sounded like he was just about as stubborn as Clint kept reminding her that she was herself. 

Clint made her feel like she was a part of something the one time a year he visited her. He offered her a way that she really could be, but even if it became increasingly alluring she couldn’t make herself take that leap. Not even for the man that she trusted with her face, her heists, and her heart. 

Aurora hadn’t loved anyone or anything for a long, long time. Even if she wouldn’t admit her feelings to his face, or even to herself, they became increasingly harder to deny. His kisses made her toes curl, his arms tightly wrapped around her made her feel safe and laughing with him gave her a sense of home. All sensations she hadn’t felt for years, if even ever. Which was the reason she hadn’t let the relationship go beyond the kisses and cuddles they somehow always ended up sharing, talking about the year that had past. 

When Aurora needed something she would go out and get it. No matter if it was a drink, food, dance, sex or something else. She attached no emotions to the action or whoever she did it with but with Clint… she couldn’t do that. She wanted to be with him. She thought about how he would feel. How he would make her feel. She even thought about what the moments would be like after. Which scared her most of all. So she wouldn’t let their relationship go that far. Just being in his company, made her want to trust him and it became harder and harder for her to turn him down, whenever he asked her to come back with him. She couldn’t. She had done things no one could forgive, not even Clint. She would end up hurt and alone again. Living alone was easier and safer. Life was better on her own. 

It didn’t stop her from thinking about him in the year that passed between him dropping from a vent in whatever hotel room she was staying in at the time. Even if she had grown to expect him every year on the anniversary date of when he first appeared, he always managed to scare the crap out of her dumping from the ceiling. Clint had almost gotten himself shot over the years on that account and he most definitely had gotten several punches on that account. Still hadn’t prevented him from appearing that way until the day he showed two months before their anniversary knocking on her hotel door. 

_Aurora looked through the peephole on the door, before lowering her gun with a frown. She quickly holstered it before pushing open the door looking past Clint up and down the hallways before stepping to the side, letting him in._

_“Did you lose your calendar? And who taught you how doors work?” she teased as she closed the door, but stopped when she turned around. Unshed tears welled in his eyes as he stood a few feet from her taking her in._

_“I needed to see you,” he confessed and Aurora instinctively opened her arms to him, inviting him closer._

_“I’m here,” she promised as Clint took a few quick steps forward into her embrace. He leaned forward, resting his head against her shoulder, letting his tears fall as he wrapped her arms around her waist and she put hers around him._

_“It’s okay. I got you. I’m here,” she repeated as she hold him, letting him cry against her as long as he needed to. Not until his body stopped shaking and his tears subsided did she lead him towards the couch in the middle of her suite._

_“Do you wanna tell me about it?” she asked gently as she sat down next to him, keeping her hand in his. She gave it a small squeeze as Clint took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he began telling her his side of the story she had already been following on the News._

_He told her about how Tony had created Ultron fearing the battle of New York that the Avengers had won a few years ago wouldn’t be the last attack the world would have to face from space. He didn’t trust the Avengers would be enough to hold back another attack and that they would be able to keep the world safe so he had created what he thought would be mankind’s best defense._

_He told her of the twins from Sokovia, that Clint had quickly grown to feel responsible for even if he had no reason too. He didn’t explain it like that but Aurora thought it to herself. Clint had a huge heart. Bigger than anyone she had ever met before in her life, and he seemed to just naturally collect broken people. Natasha, Aurora, Wanda, and Pietro. When he hadn’t been able to protect the latter when the young man, in fact, had died saving Clint’s life it had shattered him. He had held it together for the other’ and for Wanda, the twin sister. Normally he would have gone to Natasha with something like this, but from what Aurora could gather she was suffering too, only for different reasons. This battle had taken a toll on her and Clint hadn’t wanted to burden her too._

_More than that Natasha hadn’t been the one he needed. Aurora ignored him telling her that. Being needed was almost as bad as needing someone else. It only got you hurt. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him again, gently rocking him in her arms in silence for a while._

_“I love you,” Clint muttered tightening his hold on her when Aurora froze. He had expected her to react like that but he could no longer hold back what he had been feeling for years. She was more than just a mission to him. In fact, she hadn’t been since SHIELD had fallen and yet here he was seeking her out year after year because he wanted too. Because he needed her to know that he cared, that someone else could too. She could have a family if only she chose to come back home with him._

_“No you don’t” Aurora released her hold on him, pushing him away from her with a hard look. So hard it made Clint flinch and Aurora almost regretted her action. If only he hadn’t said that. He was already hurting and she didn’t want to hurt him further. He was wrong though. He didn’t love her. He loved the idea of her. Just like men before he had. Men she had let stay in their belief until she had stolen their money and disappeared in the night. Clint wasn’t those men. She didn’t want to lie to him any more than she was willing to let him lie to himself._

_“I do,” Clint looked down, to avoid the fire shooting from the woman’s eyes._

_“You think you do. But you don’t know me. You don’t know the things I’ve done,” she hissed and Clint looked back up at her shaking his head._

_“I don’t judge people by their worst mistakes. So even if I knew, which I don’t because you refuse to let me in …” Clint yelled, but when he saw the shook on her face he stopped. He took a deep breath, before calmly finishing his sentence. “It wouldn’t change how I feel about you.”_

_Aurora looked at him in disbelief as she let his words sink in. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before she made a decision she never thought she made. She told him the truth. The truth she had never in her life shared with another person. A truth she had been carrying on her own for over half of her life._

_“I killed my parents,” she blurted out, hoping to shook Clint to take back his words but he didn’t even as much as flinch, so she continued. “I killed my parents and I took their money. I have lived off my inheritance for all of my life. That’s why I never keep any of the money for myself.”_

_Her words were true, even if they weren’t the entire truth. She hoped that they would make Clint back off. Maybe even stop seeking her out every year. Her attachment to him was becoming dangerous. A clean break now would be better and she knew she couldn’t be the one to make it. Clint wouldn’t ever give up on her, even if she broke his heart. It was better this way she thought. But Clint saw right through her half-truth._

_“They hurt you…” Clint concluded, never taking his eyes off her when she took a step back as if Clint’s words had slapped her across the face. He wanted to move towards her and pull her into his arms as her eyes began to water. He didn’t. He knew she wouldn’t let him. Not right now. She was opening up to him, just like he had wanted her to for years. Clint knew that one wrong step would make her shut down._

_Aurora didn’t say anything. Instead, she spun around heading the bedroom. Clint closed her eyes, breathing in. He feared he had lost her, but before he could even begin to decide between leaving or staying she reappeared back in front of him. She dropped a folder in his lap, before turning around, starting to pace the floor._

_Clint opened the folder to see a huge mansion in flames; presumably her childhood home. He frowned as he began flipping through the pages._

_**Billionaire couple dies in a house fire. Leaves behind 16-year-old daughter.** _

_**Uncle takes in Y/L/N heiress.** _

_**Y/L/N orphan put into foster care.** _

_**Y/N Y/L/N turns 18. What will she do with her inheritance?** _

_**21-year old Y/L/N heiress disappears after clearing out bank accounts.** _

_“Y/N…” Clint looked up from the papers and Aurora froze. “That’s your name?”_

_“It was,” she answered without facing him. “A lifetime ago. Not anymore.”_

_Clint nodded, looking back down to the papers. Recognizing a pattern. Clint was a spy but he was also an heir himself as well as a survivor of abuse._

_“The foster home saw you as a paycheck. Your uncle didn’t believe you when you told him what they did,” Clint concluded before looking up in her eyes. She looked so much like a hurt animal and Clint wasn’t sure if she was gonna lash out or run. Either way, he wasn’t letting her go. Not know. Not when she had come this far._

_“And my parents what did they do to me?” she stared Clint down, almost challenging him to guess her suffering._

_“They hurt you,” Clint answered simply._

_“He told me he loved me,” Aurora’s voice broke and tears started to build in Clint’s eyes along with hers as he realized the nightmare she had lived. “It started when I was eight. She knew. I told her and she hit me. She hit me every day since. She blamed me. And he kept… She told me I stole her husband. I was their daughter and they…”_

_Aurora stopped her hysterical rant and she just stood there staring at Clint. All light had gone from her eyes as the night she had put an end to her nightmare no doubt flashed through her mind. “I blocked their bedroom door and I set fire to the house. I killed them.”_

_“You were a child and you saw no other way out. You’re not a murderer. You’re a survivor,” Clint stood up, taking a tentative step towards her and Aurora fell into his arms, sobbing as she let him hold her._

He held her for days. Listening as she opened up sharing her story. Listening to the men and women that hurt her after she received her inheritance. He told her about his past as they stayed hidden in the hotel room together for weeks. He told her about his dad and how he had lost most of his hearing. He told her how his brother had taken a different path in life from him, but that he still loved him despite all his flaws. Clint meant it when he said he didn’t judge people by their worst actions. He judged them by their heart and will to carry on.

Aurora told Clint how someone all her life had wanted something from her. Money, recognition, sex. Everyone she had let close to her had let her down in one way or another. So she disappeared. She became a vigilante in her own way. She stole from the type of people that had always hurt her and she gave to kids like the kid she had been once. 

She hadn’t trusted anyone since she was 21, not until she had met Clint. She let all her walls down with him. She let him see her, all of her as she was. Wounds and all. She let him love her in spite of it. She shared her bed and let herself feel what life could be like. For a brief moment, she let him and herself believe he had convinced her to come back with him. She let herself hope that he was right when he told her his friends would help her. They wouldn’t judge her for her worst actions any more than he did. She let herself dream of a life where she could trust again. 

She let herself feel his touch and his love, clinging to him as they moved together, holding back her tears when he whispered how much he loved her. She wanted to say the words back but she couldn’t. She knew that she would be gone before the night was through. 

As the moon shun clearly through the windows, illumination Clint’s naked sleeping form Aurora pulled herself from the bed. She pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, softly whispering the words she couldn’t bring herself to say when he was awake. 

“I love you.”

She pulled on her clothes and grabbed her bags, giving his naked form just barely covered by the sheets one last look, before placing a note next to his pillow on her empty side of the bed. 

_“I’m so sorry. I can’t be the person you want me to be. Thank you for everything_

_\- Aurora”_


	3. Into the Light

Clint had been heartbroken when three months ago he had woken up to her empty side of the bed. He knew it wasn’t about him and he knew the connection he had felt with Aurora had been real. She had spent years closing herself off to the world and Clint knew life he had offered her had to be scary. 

Clint knew that he couldn’t keep chasing her. Not anymore, not after that night. The ball was in her court now. He felt for her. He loved her and he wanted nothing more than to keep her safe. He wanted her to know what real love felt like. What loyalty and friendship felt like, but the truth is that the only person that can save ourselves is ourself.

Natasha had told him that repeatedly over the years as he went to meet Aurora over and over again. Clint knew she didn’t want him to get hurt. She had seen how his feelings had slowly changed from professional to personal to deeply intimate. She trusted his judgment when it came to Aurora. Natasha knew better than anyone just how good a judge of character Clint really was but she also knew how hard it was to let people in. She worried for both of them but her words had been true.

Clint couldn’t be the one to save Aurora. He could be her safe place to land but she had to make the leap herself. He knew deep down that eventually she would. All he had to do was wait.

Three long months he waited and then suddenly she was there. Sitting on his bed with her legs crossed, smiling at him as he dragged himself through the door of his apartment. Clint loved working for the Avengers, but some days he felt more like beat meat than human at the end of the day. Her smile didn’t falter as Clint stared at her, mouth gaping open and she just laughed as she sat there looking like she belonged.

_“Well you look terrible,” Aurora joked and Clint groaned, waddling across the floor and let himself fall face-first onto the bed next to her. He buried his face in the pillow, hiding his smile when she ran her fingers through his hair. He felt a warmth and comfort rush through him from where the tips of her fingers touched his scalp._

_“Are you okay?” she asked softly, and Clint slowly turned his head looking up at her, “Just don’t ever let Thor throw you over a wall to shoot the HYDRA agents shooting at your team from the other side.”_

_Aurora raised her eyebrows in half confusion and half amusement and Clint couldn’t keep the smile off his face any longer._

_“Well that does sound like a horrible idea,” she giggled and Clint shrugged._

_“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” grinning when Aurora threw her head back in laughter._

_“What about the landing?”_

_“Graceful. Face first of course,” Clint grinned, wincing as he remembered the dent on his head. Not that it mattered. Not when she was here, sitting on his bed laughing without a care in the world. He’d gladly land on his face every day if it kept that smile on her face._

_“How long are you here for?” Clint asked and Aurora stopped laughing. The smile stayed on her face as she laid down next to Clint. They both moved so they were resting on their sides, facing each other. They were close without quite touching._

_“As long as you’ll have me,” she answered quietly, making Clint’s head stop for a brief moment._

_“Forever,” he answered without hesitation and Aurora hid her head against the pillow, giggling softly. Clint wanted to reach out and touch her but he didn’t he stayed still, watching her and waiting. He wanted her to know she was in control. She had made the choice to come here. He didn’t want her to feel as if his help came with a price. If she wanted to change her life, go legit, maybe become an Avenger, it didn’t mean she had to be anything for him or that he wanted anything in return. He loved her and he knew she knew that. If they were going to be anything other than friends, that would be her choice as well._

_“Do you think you can help me talk to Steve? I want him to know what I have done. All I have done. I’d understand if he doesn’t want me helping you guys, but maybe I could just be me again with his help you know,” she rambled and Clint hushed her, taking her hand in his._

_“He doesn’t judge people by their worst actions either. He judged them for who they have the potential to become and believe me Cap has an annoying ability to bring out the best in everyone around him,” Clint pulled a playful face at her and she laughed._

_“That doesn’t sound like a bad trait at all,” she contradicted him and Clint shrugged._

_“Wait until you meet him. Trust me, he can be plenty annoying. A damn good man, but annoying. And stubborn. Did I mention stubborn?” Clint rolled his eyes, making her laugh at his Captain’s expense._

_“Stubborn huh? It runs in your Avengers family it sounds like,” she laughed and Clint’s mouth spoke before he had a chance to think._

_“Sounds like you’d fit right in then,” he wanted to kick himself when she stopped laughing._

_She bit her lip and a flicker of doubt returned to her eyes. “Do you really think so?”_

_Clint quickly gave her hand a squeeze, “I know so. They will love you.”_

_“Even Tony?”_

_“Even Tony,” Clint answered without thinking before frowning, “Wait why even Tony?”_

_“I may or may not have relocated some of his money when he was still an arms dealer,” she looked a weird mix between proud and shameful and Clint struggled to hold back his laughter as he playfully corrected her._

_“Weapons manufacturer.”_

_“To a 22-year-old girl that sounded like the same thing. But then he disappeared in the desert and I felt kinda bad about it. So I didn’t steal anymore and then he held that press conference telling everyone he was Iron Man. And I couldn’t exactly steal from a superhero could I?” she rambled, making Clint laugh._

_“Be sure to call him and he’ll not only forgive you. He’ll also hire you on the spot,” Clint laughed, making her smile again._

_She watched him quietly for a bit and Clint stopped laughing, looking into her beautiful eyes with a smile._

_“What?”_

_“You have no idea how scary all of this is to me. I wanna be with you and I wanna be someone you can be proud of but you come with this entire family of superheroes. I’ve always been on my own, so just trusting you is scary enough….”_

_Clint smiled, he loved how rambly she got when she got nervous. More than that he loved how she put him first. She wanted to change, he knew she had wanted that for a while. But she also wanted him. She didn’t feel as if being with him as payment for his help. She trusted him to not use her like so many people before he had. He never would, but it was important to him she saw that for herself too._

_“They are not going to hurt you. They never would and I’m not going to let you be hurt anymore,” Clint promised._

_Aurora giggled, reaching out to gently tug his hair, making him groan in pain. The dent made every hair feel like needles to his scalp._

_“How about you just worry about not landing on that handsome face of yours anymore and I’ll worry about not letting people hurt me?” she giggled, leaning in to press a soft kiss against his lips and Clint smiled widely despite the pain from his bruised lip._

_“I love you,” Clint reminded her and Aurora leaned back to look into his eyes as she replied, saying those three words so someone else for the first time in her life. Now knowing their true meaning and knowing without a shadow of a doubt that was exactly how she felt for the idiot that kept falling from vents in her ceiling year after year, making her fall right along with him._

_“I love you too, Clint.”_


End file.
